The present invention relates to a method for selectively obtaining totally natural super cloud compositions of citrus components and for obtaining a cloudy dispersion of said citrus components, especially useful in the beverage industry. This method comprises a unique combination of enzymatic treatment of water soluble extract (WSECS-polysaccharides, mainly pectins, cellulose, hemicellulose and nonsolubles such as bioflavenoids, proteins, etc.) and separation techniques, specifically ultrafiltration using selective membranes. The method further comprises emulsion of said super cloud compositions with food grade oil, resulting in a preparation with no off flavor, bitterness or after taste, good stability and high opacity. The present invention also relates to super cloud compositions obtained by this method and to beverages containing them.
For many years, citrus and beverage industries have been using cloudy emulsions to improve the appearance and stability of citrus based drinks consisting of less than 60 wt % orange juice. The concepts used in this field are based on providing an oil- in-water emulsion with weighting agents to the citrus drinks, so that the light scattering from the oil droplets will provide additional opacity to the final drink. In order to minimize creaming of the oil droplets, resulting in a ringing effect, a high density weight agent is added to the oil phase and droplets are reduced to a micronal range size. The thermodynamic instability of the emulsion is controlled, to some extent, with emulsifiers or stabilizers. Additives such as colorants, preservatives etc. could be added to the continuous water phase (water soluble additives) or to the oil phase (oil soluble additives).
The classical weighting agent, brominated vegetable oil (BVO), was banned in many countries due to its hazardous effects, and was replaced by ester gums (some synthetic and some extracted from plants). Also the monomeric emulsifiers used, such as Span and Tween have been replaced by various types of gum Acacia or gum Arabic, that when used in excess (up to 20 wt %), impart stability to the emulsion. All these cloudy emulsions require significant amounts of emulsifier to stabilize the emulsion against flocculation and coalescence.
According to the new trend, to replace synthetic components by totally natural components, attempts were made to utilize proteins and hydrocolloids and especially pectins and use them in cloudy emulsions. Pectins are concentrated in citrus peels. Some fractions of pectins have been known to stabilize certain dispersions of solid particles in the juice and to serve as an emulsifier to some of the essential oils present in the juice. Peel extracts and peel extract emulsions are presently used in cloudy emulsions but their performance is poor (a dilution of not more than 60, practically 30 to 50, could be made with absorbance of 1.0 OD with these samples). In addition, these emulsions are non-stable and impart bitterness, off flavor and some cloud instability to the final product.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,202,142 describes a process for the production of cloudy juices with stable cloudiness from natural products only by ultrafiltrating the raw juice and mixing in filter residues of cross flow filtration. Moreover, stabilizing agents must be mixed into the product of this US patent, to prevent the agglomeration of the cloudy particles.
The complex microstructure of polysaccharidesxe2x80x94proteinsxe2x80x94crystalline particles in the juice and other fruit components are not fully understood and it is almost impossible to extract them with out causing damage to the internal microstructure responsible for the cloudy effect.
In light of the present state of the art, the present invention surprisingly provides a method for specific and selective extraction of the activexe2x80x94cloudyxe2x80x94colloid composition from citrus peels and other parts of the fruit, comprising a unique combination of enzymatic treatment of water soluble extract citrus solids (WSECS) and separation techniques. The preparation obtained by this method is an all natural cloudy active preparation, having a selective internal and citrus derived composition of phenolic compounds, polysaccharides and other emulsifying components which, in emulsion, provide a preparation with excellent cloud, good stability and no after taste, off flavor, ringing effect or bitterness. The cloudy active compositions according to the present invention will therefore be referred to as xe2x80x9csuper cloud compositionsxe2x80x9d.
The present invention relates to a method for obtaining natural super cloud compositions of citrus components, for use in beverages. (In the present invention the word compositions refers to citrus components either in emulsion or not). The method comprises:
a) applying water extraction on at least one of the following; peel, core, cells, frit, juice of citrus, obtaining water extracted soluble citrus solids;
b) separating said water extracted soluble citrus solids, discarding high mesh matter and obtaining a liquor consisting of low sedimented pulp;
c) applying enzymatic treatment on said liquor by pectolytic enzymes;
d) inactivating natural and added enzymes in the liquor;
e) centrifuging said liquor (hot centrifugation) obtaining a stable high cloudxe2x80x94low concentration of sedimented pulp;
f) further concentrating the liquor;
g) applying membrane separation technologies on said concentrated liquor, obtaining a retentant containing the required super cloud compositions;
The obtained super cloud compositions may be further emulsified with oil such as vegetable oils, Tall oils, marine oils, tropical oils, terpenless, essential citrus oils and essential vegetable or spices oils, and the oil concentration in the emulsion may be up to 15 wt %. The emulsion is homogenized to obtain particles of less than average 10 xcexcm, preferably less than 1 xcexcm. Water soluble or oil soluble coloring agents, or their combination, may be further added to the emulsion. Finally, the received cloudy emulsion may be added to a beverage achieving a cloudy effect.
The present invention relates to cloudy active compositions obtained by the said method and to beverages prepared according to this method.
The present invention relates to a method for selectively obtaining cloudy active compositions of citrus components (refered to in the present invention as xe2x80x9ctotally natural super cloud compositionsxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9csuper cloud compositionsxe2x80x9d) and for obtaining a cloudy dispersion of said citrus components. This method uses one or several of the processing streams of the juice and fruit industry, known also as water soluble extract citrus solids (WSECS), which consists of various compositions of core, cells, peel, frit and juice. A typical composition consists of 55-65% (solids) peel, 20-30 wt % core materials and 15-20% frit.
In the method of the present invention WESCS compositions are extracted with hot aqueous solutions, and/or deionized and/or condensated water or by heating a mixture of water and citrus compositions, for a period of 20-60 minutes, preferably 20-40 minute, at 30-100xc2x0 C., or best at 55-60xc2x0 C. Preferably, the water extraction is applied to any combination of citrus components which comprise up to about 70 wt % of the citrus fruit or to citrus components enriched with frits.
The extracted material is further decanted and/or separated (by press, finishers or decanters) removing the high mesh matter (20-40 mesh), and the lower sedimented pulp. The supernatant (known as liquor) in which the pulp level is controlled at up to 15 wt %, preferably at 1-5wt %, is subject to enzymatic treatment applied at 3-4 Brix, and, depending on the enzymes used, at levels of 5-100 ppm, preferably 5-20 ppm, at 30-55xc2x0 C., for 20-60 minutes. The enzymatic process is controlled to adjust the viscosity, gelling properties, cloud stability and colloid stability to the required characteristics of the product. Pectolytic enzymes, such as Citrozyme cloudy 100 (NOVO) and pectinex 3XL (NOVO), are used to cleave the pectolytic matter and to obtain low molecular weight pectins, which are soluble and surface active. The enzymes are selected according to the feed characteristics of the fruit components, as per season, maturity, species, citrus hybrids and geographical location. Compositions of peel, core, cells, frit, juice of citrus fruits may vary from region to region and within species and, as a result, the conditions of the method of the present invention, may vary.
The enzymatic reaction is terminated by pasteuration at 95-105xc2x0 C. for up to 90 seconds. Pasteuration results also in the inactivation of the natural enzymes and stops any enzymatic and microbial activity in the treated system. The pasteurized slurry (liquor) is treated by hot centrifugation (juice desludger, usually known in the art to be in the temperature range of 70-105xc2x0 C.), for best control of the cloud instability factor or components, such as oxalic pectins (salts), coagulated particles etc. The product is at 3-5 Brix and is fruther pre-evaporated to 6-12 Brix, preferably 7-8 Brix.
The concentrated product is subjected to separation techniques consisting of microfiltration or, preferably, ultrafiltration. (Ultrafiltration relates to the use of membrane cuttxe2x80x94off of about 5000 to 500,000 molecular weight and microfiltration relates to membrane cut offs of molecular weights higher than 500,000 molecular weight). A membrane system batch type (one stage) may be used or a continuous system (multistage). Preferably, the ultrafiltration is by using a multistage configuration system, by utilizing a hollow fiber system of 60-106 mil at 40-60xc2x0 C. wherein the membrane cutxe2x80x94offs are 5000-500,000 molecular weight at a flow rate of 40xe2x88x923 liter/hour/ m2 of the permeate. The product is further concentrated, preferably by evaporation (or by additional membranes), to 10-30 Brix. The ultrafiltration, carried out in a balanced way, utilizing specifically sized membranes, results in a concentrated retentant (known also as concentrate) containing the cloudy active compositions (refered to in the present invention as super cluod compositions). The clear permeate, is removed. This permeate consists of most of the low molecular weight oligomeric sugars, low MW pectinates, some proteins (mainly peptides) and undesirable polyphenols (destabilzing the emulsions). In this process some of the free and oligomeric sugars and the bitter components are removed and avoided from the final product. The retentant contains some residues such as hydrocolloids, proteins, sugars and other phenolic components such as simple phenols, polyphenols and bioflavonodes (esterified by glycosides and nonxe2x80x94esterified compositions), but mainly insoluble polyphenols and bioflavanoids, in a solid crystalline form, such as naringine from grapefruits or hesperidine from oranges. In addition, the retentant contains the surface active pectins obtained in the enzymatic process. These compounds may further be emulsified with any food grade oil, such as vegetable oils, Tall oils, marine oils, tropical oils, terpenless, essential citrus oils and essential vegetable or spices oils etc. The oil concentration in this emulsion may vary from 1 to 15 wt %, preferably 3-10 wt %. The emulsion/dispersion may further be homogenized to obtain droplets/particles of less than average 10 xcexcm, preferably less than 1 xcexcm, which are added to any beverage to achieve a cloudy effect.
The obtained emulsion/dispersion is compatible with any water soluble and/or oil soluble coloring agents such as carmine, lycopene, xcex2-carotene, Lutein, xantophils, etc.
This method provides a unique mixture of two different populations of light scattering particles, namely soluble oil droplets coated by surface active pectin polymers and insoluble polyphenols and bioflavonoids broken down to the required sized particles and protected by the active emulsifying agents. This is an improved composition of citrus components, with good emulsifying properties (on oil droplets) and good stabilization activity (on the solid crystalline matter). This combination provides accumulated light scattering, achieving an improved cloudy effect. The emulsion obtained by the method of the present invention does not include bitter components and is a superior system of liquidxe2x80x94liquid emulsion and solidxe2x80x94liquid dispersion for the production of cloudy beverages with stable cloudiness with no off flavor, bitterness or after taste.
The super cloud obtained in the method of the present invention may be of a concentration of 20-30 Brix, viscosity of 100-5000 cps, may contain water soluble pectins in a concentration of 5,000-20,000 mg/liter (10-11.2 Brix) and in a dilution of 1:25 may have a cloud index at 560 nm of 20-0% T. The present invention further relates to cloudy active compositions, especially soluble surface active low molecular weight pectins and proteins and insoluble polyphenols and bioflavonoids, obtained by the method of the invention and to beverages containing these compositions.
The said invention will be further illustrated by the following examples. These examples do not intend to limit the scope of the invention but to demonstrate and clarify it only.